Each year the ABS has produced the Year Book Australia publication, a comprehensive statistical overview of Australia which describes where we have come from and where we are now. The joint themes for the 2008 Year Book Australia are Scouts and Planet Earth to coincide with the centenary year for Scouts Australia and the International Year of Planet Earth.

The Governor-General was joined by the Australian Statistician, Brian Pink, and representatives of Scouts Australia to launch the 2008 Year Book Australia on 7 February at ABS House, Canberra.

In launching the 90th edition of Year Book Australia, the Governor-General acknowledged the valuable work of the ABS and its predecessors over the past 100 years, since the first Year Book Australia was released in 1908.

'It [the Year Book] reflects the exceptional contribution that the Australian Bureau of Statistics and its predecessors have made in measuring, interpreting and explaining our society to ourselves. There is no facet of business, government, agriculture, our health, the arts and sport which has not benefited from the work of the Bureau.

'A major example of the impressive work of the Bureau is the five-yearly Census — an immense effort of planning and logistics, bringing together a small army of people to collect and then analyse the results from every household in Australia. It is rivalled only by the Federal election in its operational demands and complexity.'

All 90 editions of Year Book Australia are now available to download free.A hardcopy of the 2008 Year Book Australia can be purchased for $99 by calling 1300 135 070.